LUCKNOW : In connection with UP Police Constable Recruitment paper leak case, the roots of which are being traced to Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi and Bihar besides UP, one of the prime suspects Arun Kumar Singh surrendered before the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) in Kaushambi on Friday.
The UP STF immediately shifted Singh into the custody of the Manjhanpur Kotwali Police where the case has been registered in connection with the paper leak. Three other accused of the case have already been arrested.
The top cops DGP Prashant Kumar and ADG UP STF Amitabh Yash, said that the other three prime suspects — Abhishek Kumar Shukla of Prayagraj, Shivam Giri of Mirzapur and Rohit Kumar Pandey of Bhadohi — were arrested from Lalkua flyover in Vijaynagar of Ghaziabad on Thursday.
The STF also seized three mobile phones along with a question paper pertaining to the second shift of UP Police Recruitment Examination conducted on February 18, 2024.
According to UP DGP, the STF conducted a swift operation across Varanasi, Jhansi, Agra, Kanpur, Bareilly, Ghaziabad, Prayagraj, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Hathras, Noida, and Ballia in UP lodging 178 cases pertaining to the offence and arrested 396 individuals so far in connection with the paper leak of UP Police Constable Recruitment, RO and ARO paper leak case. As per the sources, the investigators are camping in Delhi, Bihar and Haryana to trace other conspirators.
All the three accused arrested from Ghaziabad are former employees of TCI Express Company of Ahmedabad which was engaged in storage, transportation and distribution of question papers. As per the top cops, all the three accused along with the masterminds Rajeev Nayan Mishra took the photo of the leaked paper in the warehouse and sold it for lakhs.
How it all started
Feb1, 2024: Shivam Giri tells Abhishek Shukla about cop recruitment exam papers to TCI Exp Co. in Ahmedabad
Feb 4: Shukla and Ravi Atri send photo of the ‘trunks’ lying in TCI Exp Co. facility to Bhopal-based Rajiv Nayan Mishra, who transfers `3 lakh to Giri’s account
Feb 5: The gang calls Dr Shubham Mandal, an expert in opening sealed trunks, to reach Ahmedabad
Feb 5: Mandal, along with Mishra and Rohit Kumar Pandey, opens the trunk, takes pictures of the Code 2 exam paper
Feb 9: Mishra and Atri leave Ahmedabad and sell papers to aspiring candidates for Rs 5 lakh each
Feb 17-18: 48 lakh students appear for the exam in centres across 75 districts of UP for over 60,000 vacancies
Feb 24: Following protests, Yogi Adiyanath cancels exam, orders probe
March 14: Shukla, Giri and Pandey arrested from Ghaziabad; Atri, the main accused, elusive